Fe 2 O 3 Modified Physical, Structural and Optical Properties of Bismuth Silicate Glasses

Abstract

Iron-containing bismuth silicate glasses with compositions 60SiO 2 ·( 100 − x ) Bi 2 O 3 · x Fe 2 O 3 have been prepared by conventional melt-quenching technique. The amorphous nature of the glass samples has been ascertained by the X-ray diffraction. The density ( d ) has been measured using Archimedes principle, molar volume ( V m ) has also been estimated, and both are observed to decrease with the increase in iron content. The glass transition temperature ( T g ) of these iron bismuth silicate glasses has been determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique, and it increases with the increase in Fe 2 O 3 content. The IR spectra of these glasses consist mainly of [BiO 6 ], [BiO 3 ], and [SiO 4 ] structural units. The optical properties are measured using UV-VIS spectroscopy. The optical bandgap energy ( E op ) is observed to decrease with the increase in Fe 2 O 3 content, whereas reverse trend is observed for refractive index.